Re-Election Announced on 142 Seats in Uttar Pradesh? No, Claim is False

The thumbnail has been created by a YouTube channel 'Nation Tv' to make the false claim.

Fact-Check | The viral post claims to show that re-election would be held 142 seats.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A screenshot, purportedly of a news channel, is being shared to claim that a re-election has been announced for 142 seats in Uttar Pradesh, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious after the results were declared on 10 March.

It further mentions that this might diminish the possibility of Yogi Adityanath becoming the chief minister for the second consecutive term.

However, we found this image on the YouTube channel of 'Nation Tv' and on viewing the content, we saw that the video was unrelated to this image. Further, we found no update on this by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

CLAIM

The screenshot is going viral on Facebook with varied captions. One of the captions reads, "यूपी में फिर से हो सकते हैं विधानसभा चुनाव".

(Translation: Assembly elections may be held again in UP)

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook /Screenshot)

Archives of several other posts can be viewed here, here and here.

The Quint received a message about the image on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We noticed the name of the channel 'Nation Tv' on one of the screenshots and looked it up on YouTube.

The screenshot showed the YouTube channel's name and logo. 

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot Altered by The Quint)

This led us to a video posted on 13 March 2022, which had the same thumbnail.

The YouTube channel named Nation Tv shows several such videos about re-elections while misusing anchors on the thumbnail. 

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot Altered by The Quint)

However, on viewing the content of the video, we noticed that the over two minute long video didn't speak about re-election on 142 seats but featured a purported phone conversation between two individuals.

The video features an audio recording between two unnamed individuals. 

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

This clip was from a New24 bulletin which was uploaded on the channel's YouTube on 13 March 2022 titled 'Chandauli में EVM से हुई छेड़छाड़ ? | Viral Audio का सच | Fact Check |'.

MISLEADING THUMBNAILS USED TO CREATE FALSE CLAIMS

The anchor seen in the thumbnail of the channel was Sandeep Chaudhary from News24.

One checking News24's YouTube channel, we noticed that Chaudhary has done several interviews and video news for the channel in the same attire. These videos that were released on 10 March 2022 and can be seen here and here.

The format of the viral screenshot does not match News24's official thumbnail.

Thumbnail of News24's YouTube Channel showing Sandeep Chaudhary. 

(Source: YouTube/ Screenshot altered by The Quint)

Nation Tv picked up a still from one of the videos and created a thumbnail containing false claims. This channel has also used various news anchors to spread the misinformation regarding the recent Assembly elections.

We also didn't find any news update on the said development. Had such an incident happened then the matter would have been covered.

Evidently, the claim made about re-elections being held in UP in the viral post is false.

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